We've finally got round to finishing the front of the house and we like the way it's turned out. It is sitting very pretty atop its hill and we spend hours just staring outside the window at the gorgeous view.

The shield in the center represents the sun and the universe through the Chinese character Yuan. YUAN is one of China's most ancient characters and represents the connection between heaven and Earth. In Japan the same character is called Genki (Gemki no Gen( and…

Photo # 1 First we grade the earth slightly away from the house. Then we place the insulation and next the plastic sheeting that will take away the water and allow the earth to become warm and dry. The expanded polystirine extends at least three meters beyond the house, but will not be used on the floor inside. These things are crucial as the heat the house gathers from the summer sun and the fire will be stored in this dry earth and released through the…

The North West corner turf wall is almost finished. Soon turf will be placed over the earthbag retaining wall to protect the bags and to provide a footpath. The pile of earth to the left of the wall will be a terrace planted with herbs. This will be the first of the many terraces that will enable us to utilize the rest of our land in the form of a food forest. Already the house is dissapearing into the scenery. Following the North walls completion we will begin the huge… Continue

This south facing turf wall is massive, because it has to protect us from the winds that blow up from Antartica during the winter periods and will end up using forty tons of earth, all moved by hand. Beneath lies a very uncomplicated Passive Annual Heat Storage System- we call it A SOLAR UMBRELLA. It's polysterine, one inch deep, set beneath thick plastic sheeting, the same as that used in…

A few years ago, with Tentsukuman, a famous Japanese activist and Comedian and several other leading figures we created The Wonderful World Tree Planting Festival. Since then we have led hundreds of tree planting…

Todays Arbor Day in South Africa and trees were planted here in Patagonia with Food and Trees For Africa (FTFA) in mind. We'll be planting trees with FTFA in November, when we lead another Wonderful World festival Tour of 100 Japanese to South Africa.

Beautiful clear and sunny day today - Konomi planted lots of fruit trees and a Tepa Tree, which is cool ,because we used some…

We've entered into a partnership with our friend Yuji Miyata, who recently visited us here in Patagonia. Yuji, loved the nature here so much that he decided he wanted to live in Valle Quinto, where we have our second piece of land. We have four hectares, surrounded by thousands of hectares of wilderness and figured that together we could create something very beautiful, and in no time at all came…

Tokyo FM, and its 36 affiliates, Japan's most popular station will broadcast three hours of Celebration Earth events live on Septemver 21st, the International Day of Peace. Koichi Nakatani, Japan's Tree Planting father, will host the event. This broadcast gives Celebration Earth a great opportunity to spread the work of its members through out Japan and plans are underway to make the whole event a live you tube broadcast to the…

Konomi is at home, drawing the plans of the four dome home we plan to build with Yuji. he loves it here in Patagonia and we took him to Valle Quinto where we have a four hectare patch of wilderness. The valley is vast and glorious with only eleven families spread over many kilometers of woods, rivers and mountains. our friend took us to see some of his land, but the…

With the waterfall that supplies the water and electricy for the village a rainbow appears out of the mist - but a little too late in the day to encourage us to work on the land. Yesterdays warm weather led to the influx of freezing air form Antartica and then a brief but powerful storm.…

We're back in La Junta and the mountains are dusted with snow and look like giant cakes sprinlked with icing sugar and topped with blue skies. It's nice to be back from our vacation, which we especially enjoyed in Villa Angustura, where we found great nature and this unusual twisted trunk of an Alerce Tree. ISN'T NATURE…

Recently I have been writing articles for the mainstream media and our experience in Arrayanes National Park inspired me to write another. As you will see I am not exactly overjoyed by what I have seen. The forest of Arrayanes, also known as Alerce or Myrtle Trees, was however a treasure to behold.

THE SALE OF THE WORLD'S NATIONAL PARKS

Konomi and I are on a brief vacation with in the Village of La Angostura in…